Blog Posts

CDC Releases Latest Blood Lead Data, Confirming that 535,000 Children Have High Levels and Disparities Persist. (Hard to Believe that CDC and Congress Cut the Funding, Isn’t It?)

Children belonging to families with a low income (130% of poverty level) are more than three times as likely children in higher income families to have high blood lead levels. The mean blood lead level for low income children is 1.6 µg/dL, or .6 µg/dL higher than children in higher income households (1.2 µg/dL ). Medicaid-enrolled children also have higher blood lead levels, and are more likely to have high blood levels, than non-Medicaid enrolled children. Non-Hispanic black children are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic white children to have BLLs at or above 5 µg/dL. The mean blood lead level for non-Hispanic black children is 1.8 µg/dL, while non-Hispanic white children have a mean BLL of 1.3 µg/dL.

The Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (ACCLPP)* voted today to recommend a significant change in how CDC selects the number at which a child's blood lead level should be considered elevated, and to renew its call for primary prevention.